IndonesiaGenWeb

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Welcome to the IndonesiaGenWebProject. This website
was designed to assist
researchers in their quest for their ancestry in the Republic of Indonesia.

General information about Indonesia

Indonesia is a huge archipelagic country extending 5,120 kilometers from
east to west and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. It encompasses 13,667
islands (some sources say as many as 18,000), only 6,000 of which are
inhabited. There are five main islands (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,
and Irian Jaya), two major archipelagos (Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku
Islands), and sixty smaller archipelagos. Two of the islands are shared with
other nations; Kalimantan (known in the colonial period as Borneo, the world's
third largest island) is shared with Malaysia and Brunei, and Irian Jaya
shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea.

The People

Indonesia is made up of a diverse number of ethnic groups. The
largest group were the Javanese at 45 percent of the total population.
Sundanese made up 14 percent, followed by Madurese, 7.5 percent, and coastal
Malays, 7.5 percent. As a sign of its diverse population, fully 26 percent of
the population in 1992 consisted of numerous small ethnic groups or minorities
such as the following groups on the island of Sumatra: Bataks, who
cluster around Lake Toba; the Minangkabau, from the western highlands; the
Acehnese, from the far north; and the Lampungese, who live in the south. On
the island of Sulawesi, the Minahasans live in the north, the Bugis and
Makassarese cluster around the coasts in the south, and the Toraja inhabit
much of the interior. The island of Kalimantan is populated by more than 200
groups; most of these are tribes of the Dyak ethnic group in the interior or
are ethnic Malay living on the coast. The people of Irian Jaya are of
Melanesian descent, as are some residents from smaller eastern islands.
Several million Indonesians of Chinese descent are concentrated in urban
areas. Smaller numbers of Indians, Arabs, and Europeans are scattered around
the archipelago.

The Languages

The official language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia and is the most
widely spoken tongue. However there are approximately 669 languages and
dialects spoken.

The Government

The government of Indonesia is a constitutional Republic with a president,
a House of Representatives and a Judicial branch.

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